ARTRA Trail 2026 to unveil ‘Silenced’

• A powerful collective response to erasure

ARTRA Trail 2026, taking place at the Lionel Wendt Gallery in Colombo (6 to 12 January) and across Galle Fort (23 to 25 January) primarily revolves around the poignant and timely exhibition, ‘Silenced’ curated by Azara Jaleel. 

Featuring the works of 15 contemporary artists of importance, this group exhibition responds to erasure, reflecting the shifts within the socio-political context of Sri Lanka from the 1980’s to the 2020s. The showcased works respond to this question through memory, materiality, marginalised identities and sites of resistance wherein their act of ‘creating’ in itself transforms their works as means to combating what has been lost through the years.

The experience unfolds in Colombo from 16 to 22 January, beginning with an opening night followed by artist discussions with Menika van der Poorten, Marco Manamperi, and Gayan Prageeth. 

The program continues with Sujeewa Kumari, Layla Gonaduwa, Kesara Ratnavibhushana, Sanjeewa Kumara, Hathi Mohamed, and Malki Jayakody, concluding with a panel and Magazine Launch. ARTRA Trail then moves to Galle from 23 to 25 January, featuring artist walks with Kesara, Layla, Venura Madurapperuma, and Marco Manemperi, alongside exclusive Art and Culinary and exhibitions.

Reclaiming the past is one of the key features of ‘Silenced’. The exhibition features the photography of Menika van der Poorten, whose work documents the “disappearing past” of the Eurasian community. By making long-overshadowed family archives “insistently visible,” she resists the omission of minority histories.

Additionally, Gayan Prageeth explores national trauma through visual references to pivotal moments in Sri Lankan history, including the 1983 Black July violence and the 2022 Aragalaya. His work captures a sense of continuous unrest and political rupture whilst Anusha Gajaweera utilises his Hammer and Nails series to process the “dark well of violence” stemming from the Civil War and recent global crises, using stark imagery to reflect the threat of brutality. Exploring the urban landscapes woodcut prints of Venura Madurapperuma, ARTRA’s Emerging Artist | Best of 2025

capture the “panic and fear” of contemporary life, while Chathurika Jayani reinterprets urban skylines through a surrealist lens, questioning what cities like Galle and Colombo choose to remember or erase.

Interdisciplinary artist Sujeewa Kumari uses colonial remnants and broken objects to examine the layering of collective memory, while Layla Gonaduwa explores the shifting idea of “home” through mixed-media processes. Marco Manamperi’s bold digital works confront state and social censorship through unapologetic political critique. Drawing from pop culture and internet aesthetics, he utilises irony to probe Sri Lanka’s ideological currents - from corruption to media literacy. In a climate of suppressed dissent, his subversive compositions act as a vital catalyst for justice.

Rajani Serasinghe’s mosaic works respond directly to the question, “What was left behind?” using materiality itself as both subject and method. Her practice centres on broken, discarded, and seemingly purposeless objects: fractured cups and saucers, shattered porcelain dolls, damaged chairs. These fragments, once functional and intimate parts of domestic life, are reassembled into carefully constructed mosaics, transforming loss and rupture into sites of reflection and continuity.

Serasinghe’s choice of medium is integral to her approach. Working with salvaged glass, ceramic, and porcelain, she repurposes materials that bear the marks of use, damage, and abandonment. Rather than concealing their fractures, she foregrounds them, allowing cracks and irregularities to remain visible within the composition. In doing so, she treats objects as vessels of memory - carriers of personal history, domestic ritual, and individual identity. The mosaic form enables these fragments to persist beyond their original function, granting them a renewed presence and purpose.

The group exhibition ‘Silenced’, supported by Lionel Wendt Memorial Fund and ARTRA Magazine marks another milestone for ARTRA, which has consistently showcased artists who push boundaries. Notable past features include Mohamed Hathi’s ‘Resilience and Resistance,’ addressing systemic misogyny, and Malki Jayakody’s exploration of ‘Colourism’ alongside ‘Brutality Within’, that explored the works of Koralagedara Pushpakumara Interplaying material and metaphor his collection of striking abstract works, that delves into the suffering and violence that eclipsed the nation amidst the Civil War in the 1990s.